Who Created the Winter Soldier's Arm? HeadCanon
by TimelessAnarchy
Summary: In-depth analysis on Bucky Barnes' (The Winter Soldier's) cybernetic arm.


The Soldier's arm is a thing of beauty; sleek, practical, menacing, and _very_ dangerous.  
The main question everyone has is: _Who made this prosthetic?_ The answer, as shocking as it may seem, is Howard Stark.  
Howard would never had gone rogue to join HYDRA, he was not a traitor nor an idiot, but he was very prideful and that would be his ultimate undoing.

In the First Avenger, we see Howard debuting his "flying" car, which completely crashes and fails. Anyone would be humiliated, a man like Howard more so. He redeemed himself with his Super Soldier Serum and his success with Steve Rogers.  
But Steve also 'died', crashing into the ocean with the Tesseract not long after Bucky fell into the ravine, leaving Howard with another "failed" project, though it worked out better than he could have imagined.

It makes sense that there would be a period of time between the point the Russians find James in the snow and when they attach the arm, after all, they needed to give him a chance to heal his broken bones and abrasions from the fall.

 **NOTE:** **_In the Winter Soldier, we see James' progression from falling to being dragged through the snow, to amputating the rest of his arm, to placing on the metal one, to being placed in cryofreeze. This makes it look like everything was done in quick succession, but that could not plausibly be the case; as Bucky would need time to heal, be beaten down, and the arm actually developed and placed on. It makes sense that, in Bucky's mind, the process went rather quickly as his mind was still burned and fragmented from all the mind wipes and torture. His damaged brain was filling in the most significant and shocking parts from when James/Bucky was still around and the Soldier wasn't fully developed._**

It wouldn't have been hard to get Howard to a HYDRA base. We find out that, in the Winter Soldier, HYDRA was growing inside of SHIELD. Now, SHIELD wasn't founded in the time of The First Avenger, but Schmidt and HYDRA weren't idiots. HYDRA is defined as the 'Rogue Nazi Science Division', so it's likely that the leader of the Nazi party wasn't too happy with the divergence of the best science department. HYDRA couldn't stay safely in Axis territory unless well hidden, but that would be hard with the war going on and the large-scale operations they were conducting. Instead, HYDRA began its' infiltrating early and set up Bucky's operation just inside the Allied borders, posing as a research facility intent on finding ways to make the next super-soldier; and with Howard's previous success with Captain Rogers, they would want his help.

We know HYDRA had access to very advanced technology, we see in TFA the potential of Schmidt's research. He formulates how to contain the power of the tesseract and use it to not only power his creations, but weaponize the energy. The U-boat that the HYDRA spy tried to escape in was said to almost rival the technology Howard Stark had. Why would they need Stark if their own creations nearly rivaled his?  
Howard had more experience working successfully with biological specimens and they needed a scapegoat to fall back on if necessary. What better person than Howard Stark? Even when the man figured out he'd been duped, there was very little chance that he would actually say something and be branded as a terrorist, traitor, etc.

Posing as an Allied operation, Bucky was passed off as a victim of a dogfight, sustaining his injuries after his plane went down. He was 'diagnosed' with delusions, paranoia, suicidal tendencies, homicidal tendencies, shell-shock, anxiety, and amnesia; simply to cover up their true motives and the abuse he was suffering at their hands. To control and 'treat' their patient (James), HYDRA would've had to drug him up and employ electroshock to try and lessen the symptoms; though the drugs and electroshock was truly used as part of his conditioning into the Winter Soldier.

 **NOTE: _Bucky's delusions and other symptoms while in HYDRA's 'care' weren't fully caused by his fall, they were reactions to what was being done to him inside the compound. The suicidal and homicidal tendencies were the fault of him trying to escape or get out the best way he could; the bruises on his body were the result of beatings, not his own hands. His delusions and paranoia were about spot on, he believed he was a prisoner of war captured by HYDRA and they were out to kill him, but not before torturing him for information or revenge._**  
 _ **But all of his delusions were naturally blamed on his injuries and trauma he suffered in the 'plane crash' while he was fighting HYDRA troops. Mental health treatments and understanding sucked back then.**_

They contacted Howard, claiming that James was a willing volunteer to the newest super-soldier program and wanted to have a new robotic limb so he can get back out and fight. Of course, James was too drugged out and confused to do anything but consent, his moments of true clarity were filled with him either ranting and raving about HYDRA and how Howard was a traitor or how Howard should build him the prosthesis so they could both escape. At times, James was convinced Howard was captured there with him; other times, James believed Howard was a traitor.  
Of course, Howard wasn't a traitor, he would never be. His pride blinded him into making the perfect addition to the most efficient weapon.

In Civil War, we learn that the Winter Soldier was tasked with disposal and retrieval, securing more of the perfected Super Soldier serum while simultaneously taking out it's creator.

We see that Howard recognized the Soldier, calling him "Sargent Barnes" before he was killed. Howard must have met Bucky while Steve was still around, but his focus never would have been on the sniper, rather on the super soldier. A substantial length of time has also passed between their meetings and the Soldier's appearance had already altered tremendously. Face is thicker and scruffy, eyes cold and dead, body beefed up and motions colder and more calculated. There was no trace left of Bucky, not in his eyes or in his personality, the Soldier was a pure weapon in that scene, hardly human.

But his most prominent feature was the cybernetic arm, though no-one who wasn't high-level clearance with HYDRA knew that the Soldier for-sure existed and even fewer knew about the legit-ness of the cybernetic limb. Howard for sure wouldn't know unless he had a hand in the creation, which was ultimately his destruction.


End file.
